Seven things to know about U2’s “The Joshua Tree” album After 30 years, there’s no doubting its impact and staying power, or its ability to move and unify a stadium full of fans. Whether “The Joshua Tree” is U2’s most soulful and revelatory album is up to fans to decide, but it’s surely a top contender. To us, soul music’s not about being black or white, or the instruments you play, or whether you use a drum machine or not. When U2 accepted the Grammy for Album of the Year in 1988, Bono noted: “We set out to make music, soul music. ‘The Joshua Tree’ was the first album where we consciously went: ‘OK, we spent like four albums thinking about Europe (and) Ireland, but let’s take a look at the roots of this form that we are inevitably a part of.’ And those were all American …. The Edge commented on this aspect in Rolling Stone, saying: “We definitely were falling into the arms of America in the sense that, as a band, punk-rock was so much about establishing a unique form of music not inspired or influenced by American music.

the album also represented the start of a major new chapter that saw the band significantly broaden its stylistic scope and artistic reach. That U2 was so successful with “The Joshua Tree” - whose worldwide sales topped 25 million in the pre-digital era - speaks volumes about the band’s ability to create uplifting music while addressing such serious subject matter.įor the members of U2 - Bono, guitarist The Edge, bassist Adam Clayton and drummer Larry Mullen, Jr. The soul-sapping impact on families whose bread-winners abruptly lose their jobs (“Red Hill Mining Town”).Violence in America, as seen through the eyes of a serial killer (“Exit”).The ever-harrowing toll of heroin addiction (“Running to Stand Still”).The sometimes lethal results of American foreign policy in Third World countries (“Mothers of the Disappeared”).involvement in the civil war in El Salvador in the 1980s.

Extremism, gun violence and the plight of refugees (“Bullet the Blue Sky”), which was inspired by U.S.The American Dream, at its most inspirational and embattled moments (“In God’s Country”).Questioning your faith in times of doubt (“I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For”).The quest for unity and spiritual and personal transcendence in times of global strife (“Where the Streets Have No Name”), which U2 performed during the 2002 Super Bowl halftime show as the names of 9/11 victims appeared on a huge video screen.Indeed, the songs on “The Joshua Tree” address an array of issues that still resonate strongly today.

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